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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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'Peccavi'
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The most brief and brilliant example of a favourite British form of humour, the pun. In 1843 Sir Charles Napier conquered the Indian province of Sind (now southeast Pakistan), and was criticized in parliament in 1844 for his ruthless campaign. A girl in her teens, Catherine Winkworth (1827–78), remarked to her teacher that Napier's despatch to the governor general of India, after capturing Sind, should have been Peccavi (Latin for 'I have sinned'). She sent her joke to the new humorous magazine *Punch, which printed it as a factual report under Foreign Affairs. As a result the pun has usually been credited to Napier.
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